


legs of fire, face like the sun

by hummingbirdbandit



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Airships, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, F/F, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Apocalypse, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Steampunk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-01 17:43:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15148448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummingbirdbandit/pseuds/hummingbirdbandit
Summary: Come take a journey with me.





	1. Job 38:41

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not entirely sure where this will go. It started as a wild idea that flew into my mind - a worldbuilding exercise, and a chance to explore my old writing style. Worldbuilding information may be released on my tumblr as time goes on, when it would no longer be a spoiler. But for now, come take a journey with me.
> 
> ~Hum
> 
>  
> 
> (Chapter one title - Job 38:41)

The coast was always stormy in the winter.  This was good for those with money to erect turbines for power; those boosted in their ivory towers long after ivory became a myth, drinking homebrew beer and waggling their groomed eyebrows as wave after icy wave crashed along the shore.  It was good for the business owners, the politicians, and those born to money who didn't have to feel the chill of the evenings seeping through their threadbare blanket, didn't know the sound of an infant sobbing from their swiftly blackening toes.  They didn't know.

Roxy Lalonde knew.  She knew the trials of living on the coast in this part of the world, at this time of year, with no money to escape.  Skill meant nothing to your chances, she knew. She knew.

So she starved herself, putting aside precious pennies in a pouch sewn with shaking hands to the insides of her clothing rather than buying food.  She scrapped what she could find, stowing baubles and bolts with her best friend and only companion. She still managed to feed the strays that came to her door, against her friend's wishes.  He always was a grouch, and if Roxy didn't feed them, who would?

Indeed, who would.

* * *

The morning air was biting and cruel on her face as Roxy crept out of the Estate - the sardonically-named collection of huts and boxes that housed the unfortunate many unable to afford lodging in the cities Above.  The cliff on which Dorne's Point was built left the Estate in shadow for much of the day, and the city itself belched black smoke that choked the lungs of the inhabitants Below. Many were addicts, strung out on dreamgrift and stormsnout, and others were simply the unlucky.  Her neighbor had fallen pregnant with one too many children, and the state fined her into poverty. The old man across the way was injured and no longer able to perform his trade. And Roxy... she was born there, in the Estate, her mother having lost herself to alcohol long before she was conceived.  She knew this because the young woman who raised her, Rosalind, had passed on her mother's things to her when she had come of age.

But it truly didn't matter how she had arrived in the Estate.  Once you arrive, you never leave. No one had managed to escape their station since long before she was born, when Dorne's Point was still a center of commerce and beauty instead of the slum that it was today.  Still, a slum was better than a muddy, salt-soaked shoreline. No, it didn't matter how she had arrived - what mattered was that Roxy was leaving.

She carefully stepped between the people dozing on the slabs of salt-rock they had used to pave the "streets" (they hardly deserved that title), clutching all she owned in her arms and praying that no one awoke.  It was hours til dawn, and this was a path she had traveled countless times without trouble, but it would only serve to compound her bad luck if someone were to notice her departure. Slipping a hand into her bag, she wrapped it around her mother's scarf, bundling the last pieces they would need.  This would work. Sollux was a fine technician. If anyone could build it, it was him. It would fly. It had to.

When she made her way out of the Estate, Roxy heaved a sigh and straightened up.  No one had seen her, other than her cats, and though they would miss her, they wouldn't give her away.  She started down the beach with a spring in her step, and hope in her heart.

It was going to be a long trek.  Roxy knew this, and she had prepared for it.  Keeping a project like theirs out of sight from city officials meant having a nice little hole to hide in, as far from town as was reasonable.  Sollux had located one nearly a year prior, and in that time the only living thing to have found them was an intrigued pelican who stole their lunch.  It was hungry work, that day, but after the fear of being found, it was relieved.

Roxy's pack was full of food.  She had stashed as much as she could afford while still picking up the last two gears they would need to fit into the helm in order to guarantee flight, and the coin pouch inside the front of her blouse was empty but for a small worrystone that Sollux had gifted her when they began construction.  It was strange, having her purse empty. Final. Rather than terrify her, the sensation was liberating.

The sun was beginning to rise when Roxy rounded the curve of the cliff face and ducked beneath into the depression in the stone.  A swath of moss hanging across the cave mouth hid it from the prying eyes of the rare ship that landed in the gulf. Inside there was little light - not worth the risk - but a small headlamp bounced its cheery illumination across the ceiling and walls of the cave as Roxy observed her friend crawling out from beneath their project.

The culmination of a year of work, the airship was magnificent.  It wasn't much to look at, built of scrap metal, patchwork cloth and de-rusted gears, but it was magnificent nonetheless because it was escape.  A chance to get as far away from Dorne's Peak as possible, to take refuge across the sea in the land of plenty they had heard about since they were children.  A chance at a life that in their current state would not last longer than a few years at best.

Sollux had drawn up the blueprints himself, modifying and reworking tradeship blueprints he had stolen while working in the city.  They had argued for weeks about comfort versus practicality, space versus the minimization of weight, and finally agreed on the final plans fourteen months ago.  It had seemed impossible at the start, smuggling piece after piece to their little alcove, welding by daylight to hide the sparks and spending meticulous hours going over each piece by hand, stress-testing and securing their futures bolt by bolt.  And now, with the final pieces in Roxy's pack, they were ready to fly. Either it would take off without a hitch or they would crash and be arrested instantly - the only way to know was to try.

The light from the lamp focused on Roxy, and Sollux's familiar, irritated lisp greeted her.  "That's what you wore? Are you insane? If someone had seen you, they would have known something was going on!  Where did you even get those clothes? Did you waste our food money on this bullshit?" He gestured at her with one grease-stained hand, his eyebrows knitted into a near-permanent scowl that Roxy knew had nothing to do with anger.

"They were my mother's.  I got them years ago, but I never wore them because I didn't want them  _ ruined _ , Sollux.  No, I did not spend our money on clothes.  Here." She thrust her pack into his arms and smoothed the front of her blouse, relishing the soft fabric on her fingertips and the warmth in her limbs.  "Anyway, quit your worrying, you grump. Everything is going to go great! You've double checked everything by now, and I've double checked your double checking, so I don't understand what you're so scared of!  We have enough fuel. We have enough space to sleep, and as long as we don't drive each other crazy, we'll be perfectly fine!"

Sollux seemed unconvinced.  "Right. Everything will be fine.  Sure. And when we fall to our deaths in the gulf, or get shot out of the sky by city enforcers, that'll be just  _ peachy _ ."  Despite his complaints, he was already digging through the pack, looking for the missing pieces.  His hand closed around an apple and he gasped, pulling it out of the bag. "Fruit? How expensive was this?"

"It's fine, Sollux, just finish the helm so we can leave.  I figured we were owed some celebration, alright?" She snatched the apple from his hand and dug her free hand into the bag.  Her mother's scarf brushed her hand and she pulled it out, triumphant, unwrapping the gleaming gears that she had acquired the previous day.  They were the only new metal on the ship, a necessary component for opening the aperture for lift. They couldn't risk these pieces sticking - doing so would put their very lives at risk and turn the ship into an enormous paperweight.

Sollux's sneer dropped away, replaced by a manic grin.  "Perfect!" He clamored up the rope into the ship, vanishing with a laugh.

Roxy shook her head at his enthusiasm, grinning wildly herself.  She began slicing the apple in half with her mother's knife, licking the sugar off of the blade and nearly moaning at the taste.  Something loud clinked, and Sollux came shimmying back down the rope in record time. He pointed at the apple and raised an eyebrow.  "Thought this was celebratory? Isn't that a bit... premature?" Roxy shrugged.

"In case we don't make it.  I'd hate for it to go to waste."

A solemn silence hung over them both as the reality of their plight struck.  There were only two options left - success or incarceration.  _ Or death _ , Roxy's mind pleasantly supplied, but she chased it away with the sweetness of the apple and her good friend's silent presence beside her.  He rested his hand on the knee of her trousers as he ate, chomping down with crooked teeth. Roxy sighed. She leaned her head on his shoulder and looked out onto the gulf through the curtain of moss, taking in the grey horizon for the last time.  It wasn't beautiful, but it was home, and leaving meant striking out into the unknown.

Excitement sparked through her.  She couldn't wait to see what was out there.

* * *

"Port list, testing!"

"Looks good, Sollux."

"Starboard list, testing!"

"That one's good, too.  Is that all?"

Sollux popped his head out from the small starboard window, grabbing at his glasses as they tried to slip from his face to the sand below.  "That's the last of it. Nothing left to check. We're golden." He tried to force his scrawny frame out of the window, impatient, and nearly got stuck.  Roxy laughed.

"Will you use the damn door, Sollux?  If you break something now, we can't fix it!"

Sollux stuck his tongue out and scrambled down the side of the ship, tripping and falling into Roxy with a hoot.  "It's finished, we're really leaving, we're getting out of this shithole!" he gasped, his lisp so bad in his excitement that only years of translating his excited rambling allowed Roxy to understand him at all.  She giggled as he hugged her, all pointed elbows and ribs stabbing at her from beneath his too-thin shirt, and sweat and grease and  _ Sollux _ , the only person she had in the world.  Roxy rested her head gently in the crook of his neck as he spun her around, and when her feet finally touched the ground, any fear left with the air in her lungs.

"Let's go."  She grabbed at the rope, climbing up to the deck and grinning at the _ tap tap _ of her shoes on the metal.  Sollux joined her in seconds, slipping into the cabin and gesturing for her to follow.  Roxy ducked carefully under the doorway - and stayed hunched, the small space not high enough for her to stand properly.

Sollux looked ridiculous, bent nearly in half as he flipped levers on the helm.  The engine squealed to life and Roxy felt a stab of panic at the noise before excitement buffed it away.  Sollux stepped around Roxy, pressing a large button and unlocking the aperture's dial. It would take a precise hand to give them enough lift to leave the cavern without crashing against the stone ceiling - Sollux had that precision.  And that left Roxy to pilot.

Roxy took a seat in the captain's chair, hands trailing over the patchwork levers and mismatched dials of their ship.   _ Her ship _ .  Sollux couldn't fly - he was all numbers and technical knowledge, with none of the intuition and multitasking needed of a pilot.  Truth be told, Roxy had never flown, either. She had studied stolen books tucked into the crates that held their supplies, reading by candlelight for a year to prepare, but... nothing beat her hands on the controls.  Nothing could simulate this.

She hoped against hope she didn't let Sollux down.

"Do it," she said, voice high and tight, as she released the anchor and sealed the doors.  Airtight. Perfection. Sollux turned the dial, and the ship began to rise with a keening whine.  For a moment, Roxy was sure that it would rattle apart. The seams creaked and groaned, but held tight, and they were moving, nose of the ship easing out through their mossy portiere and into the gulf.

Most airships were constructed to handle ocean waters for port.  It took less energy than maintaining lift for aerial docking, and with energy at a premium, that made it the best option for the few ships still airborne.  The cobbled-together joke of a ship Roxy and Sollux had built was not constructed with this in mind. It was not meant to survive past its maiden voyage; this, they had prepared for.  Knowing this, Roxy did her best to keep the ship from catching the waves as they eased into the gulf. There was no telling what getting water into the ship would cause, and minimizing damage until landing was essential.

As soon as she was clear of the cliffside, Roxy gave the signal and Sollux opened the aperture further, coaxing the ship high into the air.  Sirens from Dorne's Point began to sound, and Roxy whooped with joy as they shot out of reach of the proximity defenses. It was working! No one could get them now!  She looked over her shoulder at Sollux's grinning face and they exchanged a look containing every unspoken word from the past few months. The creaking of the ship was a perfect counterpoint to the wailing sirens and their incredulous laughter, and the A. S. Skaia took off for lands unknown.

* * *

An hour after takeoff, Roxy felt Sollux's hand on her shoulder and jolted out of her tense focus.  He reached into his breast pocket and retrieved a folded piece of paper, creased so often as to be fragile.  Placing the map on the helm without a word, he tapped gently at the destination and the circled coordinates scrawled in his distinctive print.

Roxy didn't need the reminder - she had long memorized the numbers.  -4.8332 N, 11.88268 E - the location of the entrance to the land of plenty.  A place of jungles where food hung heavy on the trees and animals could eat well on the trash of the civilization alone.  A place for those who need refuge, who need to escape the hell of their lives.

A place for people like them.

Flipping the auto-pilot toggle, Roxy carefully entered the coordinates into the system, verifying against her own memory just in case.  She then rose from the seat, cracking her back and taking care not to hit her head on the low ceiling. She smiled at Sollux. "Want to stretch out on the floor?  You're far too tall for a space like this, you Jotun." Sollux snorted.

"Norse today, are we?" he asked, trailing his hands across the ceiling to steady himself.  He dropped to the pile of fabric they would be using for a bed for the journey, groaning as he straightened his spine and rolled his neck.

"It was either that or Nahullo, but your skin is always so covered in dirt I wasn't sure you were white enough."  Roxy sat beside him and stared at the ceiling. "Can't be using inaccurate mythos now."

Sollux rolled his eyes and snickered.  "I'm not sure what your obsession with these dead cultures is, anyway.  The Nords, Choctaw, Carthaginians... none of it matters anymore. They're all dead.  Have been since before the pulse. They were ancient when our ancestors were children.  Why do you care?"

"Someone has to remember them," Roxy said, pulling her pack into her lap.  "So much knowledge was lost during the pulse - anything we can save now matters."  Sollux scoffed as she pulled out a loaf of hard bread, breaking off a small piece for Sollux and another for herself.

"You know what matters to me?  Having the barometric readout accessible from the floor so I don't have to get up fifty times a night to make sure we won't suffocate in our sleep," Sollux muttered through a mouthful of bread.  Roxy sighed.

"We'll be fine.  It's only two days."

Two days.  Forty-four hours of flight.  One in-flight refueling over perilous, unforgiving ocean.  It would be fine. Roxy swallowed down her food, no longer hungry.

Sollux and Roxy made idle chitchat, leaning against the walls of the Skaia and feeling the vibrations of whistling air seep into their bones.  When she rose to check the course, Roxy heard a small noise coming from the storage crates. She whipped around and caught Sollux, red-faced and hiding something behind his back.  "What have you got there, Sollux?" she asked, an eyebrow creeping for her hairline. He shrugged, trying hard to look nonchalant with a squirming... something tucked behind him.

"Supplies," Sollux assured her, and Roxy heard the noise again, clearer.  A meow.

"You  _ didn't! _ " she squealed, leaping at him and grabbing at him desperately.  Embarrassed, he held the kitten up, placing it gently in Roxy's arms.

"I knew that one of your strays had a litter and I saw how distraught you were about leaving them all behind.  This one was the runt. The mom wasn't feeding it - I don't think you even saw it, busy as you were, and I knew he would die if we left him.  So... I stole him away." Sollux's voice was strained. "Haven't named him. I'm no good at that."

Roxy pulled the gray and white hairball to her chest and cooed at it, grinning at the prick of its tiny claws into her hand.  "I'm going to call him Sprocket," she said in a singsong voice. Sollux laughed.

"What the hell kind of a name is Sprocket?" he asked, sitting on top of the crate the kitten had been hidden in.  Roxy could clearly see the little nest he had built to keep the creature quiet, tucked beside jugs of rainwater.

"It's a fine, distinguished name, that's what kind."  She leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek in thanks - and immediately leapt away like she had been burned.  An awkward silence draped over them both. After a tense moment, Sollux spoke.

"There's no one here to punish us, Roxy," he whispered.  "No laws on the high sea, and all. I know what you mean by it, you don't have to worry."

"I know, that's not..."  Roxy sat gently on the floor, careful not to jostle the kitten gnawing on her thumb.  "It's not you I'm worried about. Just habit, is all. I'm grateful to not have to hide, I am.  I just..."

"Worry," Sollux finished, and slumped to the floor with her.  "Yeah. I know. It would have been worse for you, had someone known.  It always is worse on the women. I'm just happy to have a friend like you.  Someone who thinks I'm worth the risk."

"Of course you're worth the risk, Sollux!" Roxy snapped, pulling a claw loose from her blouse.  "And don't act like you're the only one who gets anything out of this, silly. I get lonely, too."

And she did.  Loneliness was part of life at the Estate.  With populations soaring and resources scarce, city enforcement put strict laws in place about physical contact between members of the opposite sex.  To be caught in contact with someone other than your legally delegated spouse would mean incarceration, and fines high enough to put someone into a lifetime of debt.  It had been that way for decades before Roxy was born. Some tried to circumvent this through relationships with those of the same sex, but... well, everyone knew what happened then.

Meeting Sollux had been equally a godsend and the most dangerous thing that had ever happened to her.  He often had episodes, moments of elation or extreme negativity that made him desperate for contact, something to ground him.  Roxy provided, happily, putting both their lives at risk - and giving them both something they sorely needed. She sighed.

"Thank you, Sollux.  He's beautiful. Would you like to hold him?"

Sollux hesitated.  "Nah, I'm alright. I'm sure I'll get plenty of the little furball before we land.  He already ate one of my work gloves. If I hadn't brought two pairs, where would we be?  I told you they were necessary." Back to bickering - familiar. Comfortable. Roxy fought a smile.

"They wouldn't have been if you'd warned me.  I could have brought a toy laced with catgrass, and we would have been fine.  This is all on you, mister." Her stern tone stretched as her grin broke free, lighting up her face in the afternoon sun.  Sollux scowled at the ruined remains of his glove and dangled it above Sprocket's head, scowling deeper to hide his amusement as the kitten attacked it with all the force of a few ounces of seasoned predator.

Within the hour, the two were laughing at Sprocket's antics, all pretense gone.  By evening, they were exhausted, smiling, and well-fed for the first time in waking memory.  Sollux checked the barometrics one last time as darkness fell, setting his watch to wake him for a follow-up.

The two fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms, calm and secure, rocked to sleep by the whooshing of the wind and the engine's buzz.

  
  
  



	2. Jonah 1:4

City enforcers dragged Roxy before the court, her clothes tearing like tissue paper beneath their hands as the faceless men shoved her to her knees.  Possessive touches burnt her skin. Her hair fell out at their grip, loose strands turning grey before her eyes.  _ Guilty _ , the court chanted, before she could begin her defense.   _ Guilty, guilty, guilty _ .  The legislator's teeth were razors; they glinted in the harsh electrical light so unlike the warm light of the sun.  Roxy had never seen fluorescence. It was toxin; it seared into her eyes. Her skin blistered with the strength of it all.  Roxy opened her mouth to scream over the stream of words falling from the mouth of the legislator -  _ guilty, guilty, guilty _ .

Roxy woke with a gasp to the sensation of Sprocket pawing at her hair, purring like the engine keeping them aloft.  She wiped tears from her eyes quickly as Sollux blinked to consciousness before her, his face open and unguarded from sleep.  "Whazwrong?" he lisped, yawning. "You okay?" Roxy flashed him a smile, scooting back so they no longer touched.

"Yeah, I'm fine!  Sprocket just startled me, the little rascal.  I'm already up - I'll check the course and the barometrics.  You get some more rest. The sun won't be up for another hour." 

Sollux muttered in acquiescence and rolled over, already halfway back to sleep.  He pulled her pile of blankets into his arms, pillowing his cheek on it like he had on her shoulder through the night.  The sight sent a flutter of guilty affection through Roxy, and she brushed a strand of messy hair out of his face.  _ Guilty _ .  Jerking her hand back, she rose and made her unsteady way to the helm.

Everything was going well - a little too well.  Roxy's luck had never been this good. They would have to refuel by evening, a dangerous feat in a moving vehicle this size, but the engine was stable and they were still on track.  She dropped into the captain's chair and sighed, eyes slipping shut. Afraid to sleep properly again, she dozed, waking only to the warmth of the rising sun.

* * *

Sollux was a whirlwind of energy, pacing around the space and tapping his fingers on anything that he could reach.  What was endearing in their spacious cavern was anxiety-inducing in such a small space, and Roxy tried to make herself small in the chair as he ranted.

"We don't even know that this place is still there!  We built a flying deathtrap and decided to go on a joyride to a mythical city on the other side of the ocean!  How is that logical? How could we do this, it's insane! We're going to die, Roxy, you know that? At least back home we would die from something easy like starvation, but out here?  Who knows what could happen!"

"Sollux, are you hungry?"  Roxy asked, trying to seem calm.  Her conscience screamed at her, but she ignored it - this is why she brought it in the first place.  It had been expensive. It had been dangerous to acquire. But she bought it for a reason, and this was that reason.  If Sollux broke something, they would die. If he didn't calm down, he would break something. It was necessary.

Sollux paused his rant and turned on her, hands on the ceiling and fingers drumming on the metal.  "Yeah, kinda." His pupils were wide, eyes darting in panic. "What about you?"

Roxy grinned.  "Starving. Let me get us something to eat.  You wanna sit down?" Sollux cocked his head.  With his bent posture, he looked like a bird staring at a snack.

"Nah.  I'm good here.  I don't wanna-" He started to pace again and a loud yelp echoed through the cabin as Sollux stepped on Sprocket's tail.  His eyes filled with tears and Sollux snatched the little kitten up in his arms, apologizing. Roxy used his distraction to pull out the small herb loaf she had tucked into the small inner pocket of her pouch.  The loaf was laced with dreamgrift - a drug with a wide variety of recreational uses. It was often used to counteract the exhaustion of working a double shift, sparking energy into tired muscles, but in higher doses it overloaded the senses, putting the consumer into a stupor.  Roxy had never taken it herself. She didn't know how high of a dose she would need to calm Sollux down. Breaking the loaf in half, she handed him a piece and pulled her own herb loaf from their supply crates.

"Here.  Small pieces, I don't want you to choke.  You're very... jittery."

"I can take care of myself," Sollux said through a mouthful of bread, still holding Sprocket to his chest.  Roxy snickered and took a seat, watching him carefully for signs of the drug taking hold. Sollux was small, malnourished.  It would be easy to go overboard. Roxy prayed that she hadn't made a huge mistake.

It didn't take long.  Sollux's movements became more animated, more energetic.  Sprocket slipped from his arms and tucked himself under the captain's chair, and Sollux tried to chase him, hitting his head on the helm and growling at his lack of coordination.  He finally sat, giving Roxy a suspicious look.  _ Another piece of herb loaf, then _ , Roxy thought, breaking off another piece and handing it over.

At least the ranting had stopped.  Sollux fell silent, staring at the crumbs on his fingertips and licking them off with a pensive expression.  He nodded thoughtfully. "Is it sleepstone?" he asked quietly, not looking at her. Roxy flushed.

"No.  Dreamgrift."  Sollux nodded again.

"You could have asked first, before drugging me."  Roxy swallowed painfully, the bread suddenly dry and sticking in her throat.

"I'm sorry, Sollux, I was just-"

"Worried."  His lisp was thicker now, heavy with the drug on his tongue.  "I know."

The silence was thick, painful with guilt.  Roxy placed her own loaf back into her bag and handed Sollux a jug of water.  "You're... going to be thirsty." He just stared at the jug for a moment.

"I'm gonna go take a piss while I can still walk."

Sollux rose unsteadily, wrapping an anchor rope tightly around his weight and stepping into the tiny airlock, then he was gone, retired to the deck.

When Sollux returned, the anger had left his posture.  He moved carefully, hands steady, and settled down in a corner of the cabin, back against the wall and eyes calm and distant.  Roxy untied his anchor rope and he smiled at her in gratitude. Sprocket crawled into Sollux's lap and he raised a lazy hand, rubbing at the kitten's ears.

"You gotta check the cabin pressure Rox," he slurred, attention split by his words and the purring creature.  "And the fuel gouge. Gauge. That one."

"Of course, I've got it.  You sit tight." Roxy nudged the water jug in Sollux's direction and rose to her feet.  When she reached the helm, her heart sank to her toes. The needle on the fuel gauge inched perilously close to the bright red E signaling an empty tank.  She swallowed, and shot a glance at Sollux - blissed out, barely able to keep up with Sprocket's sleepy movements.  _ Shit. _ _   
_ __   
"Sollux, the uh.  The tank is empty."  Sollux grinned up at her.

"Yeah, I got it!" he said happily, trying to rise to his feet - and instantly collapsing.  Sollux glared at the floor like it had personally wronged him, and Roxy's unease grew. She had killed them both, there was no way Sollux could function this way, she  _ didn't know how to do this! _  But she had to.  She didn't have a choice.  This was her fault, her mistake, and she would have to fix it.

"Sollux, sit down.  Where are the fuel canisters?"  Sollux blinked at her, confused.

"They're under the thing.  The uh. The thing." He gestured vaguely downward.  "The hole? Hull. Under the hull in a little cabinet.  Why? I can do it, you don't gotta-"

"Hush.  You can't even stand up.  I can do this."  _ I have to. _  "Tell me what to do."

* * *

Roxy tugged hard on the anchor knot around her waist, making absolutely certain it is tied properly.  If she slipped on the deck, the knot would be the only thing between her and certain death. Sollux mumbled up at her from the floor, still complaining and trying to convince Roxy to let him go.

"Sollux, take a nap.  I'll be back in a moment," Roxy said dismissively, stepping out into the airlock and shutting the door behind her.  She stared at the heavy metal door separating her and the wind, and pulled Sollux's goggles down over her eyes with shaking hands.  A steadying breath, and Roxy pushed out onto the deck.

The wind caught her like a punch to the chest, and Roxy clung desperately to the doorframe of the airlock.  She gasped, pulling in a painful lungful of air against the rushing wind, and took an unsteady step, reaching for the next anchor rope, tied to the railing.  It was agonizingly slow work, tying off the next knot as the rope whipped wildly about her, but Roxy managed, and began her trek along the length of the ship.

The ladder was only a few feet out of reach, but it felt like miles as Roxy dragged herself along the railing, feet scraping along the deck.  The metal rungs curved beneath the ship, and rusted carabiners stuck out from the hull every couple of feet, to keep her safe if she lost her grip.  Swallowing down her vertigo and terror, Roxy placed her feet onto the first rung, sliding herself off of the deck to dangle above open ocean. She clipped the first carabiner to her waist and let out a scream when the wind caught her, tossing her to the side and clear off the ladder.  The rope snapped taught and held, and she scrambled for the rungs.

Roxy white-knuckled the ladder for a long moment when she finally caught hold, sobbing into the unforgiving steel of the hull.  She couldn't do this, it was too much, she was going to die! Her thoughts jumped from her own mortality to that of her friend just above her, knocked silly by her hand, and Roxy steeled herself.  Inch by inch, rung by rung, carabiner by carabiner, Roxy made her way down the side of the ship.

The "little cabinet" Sollux had mentioned was anything but.  It was a hatch, nearly as big as Roxy, made of steel and rubber with a handle latching it shut.  Roxy grabbed ahold of the handle, bracing herself, and yanked hard to the side, nearly unbalancing herself from the ladder.  The hatch came free with a groan - and ripped off its hinges, flying away behind and beneath her with a crash. Only finely-tuned reflexes kept it from taking Roxy along for the ride.  She cursed loudly - her mother would have been proud - and reached for the fuel canisters tightly wedged into the hatch.

The canisters were heavy and unwieldy, and opening the small hole to the fuel tank required tightening the ropes around her waist, leaving her dangling and hands-free.  Adrenaline and fear had her trembling, but she carefully tipped the tanks into the opening, letting the empty canisters be swept away by the grasping wind. Roxy offered a silent apology to the aquatic life she was harming, but in this moment, her life was far more important.

The climb back to the deck went much faster than the exhaustive crawl downward, and now that she was sure the rungs would hold, clinging to the ladder thousands of feet above the blue water was a sight Roxy could appreciate.  Sunlight danced on the waves, and with no land visible in either direction, Roxy felt very small. Very secure, in the grasp of mother ocean and her world below. She dithered on deck, clutching the railing, until her lungs began to complain from the thin air.  Stepping into the airlock, Roxy breathed a sigh of relief.

She entered the cabin and the last of her remaining strength drained from her like water through loose fingers.  Without bothering to check the helm, she collapsed beside Sollux's snoring form and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Roxy awoke to Sollux's frantic voice, and his warm hands shaking her awake.  It was dark - how long had she been asleep? Surely not long enough to warrant nightfall.  Sollux tugged her to her feet before she was fully conscious, dragging her to the helm to look out the window.  What Roxy saw was a bath of ice water to her senses, and she slammed herself into the captain's chair, rubbing sleep from her eyes desperately.

The sky was dark as night, yes, but not from sunset.  Rolling towards their ( _ small, it was too small to weather this, they were going to die _ ) airship was a cyclone - an enormous ocean storm, dominating the horizon and turning the ocean waters black and foreboding.  Roxy flipped the lever, giving herself the controls, and tried her hardest not to panic.

"Roxy, we gotta turn around!" Sollux shouted, tearing at his hair.  "We gotta get around this thing, it'll tear us to pieces! There was no forecast for this, the ship can’t withstand those winds, we're gonna die!"  Roxy swallowed.

"Yeah.  We probably are."

Roxy pulled at the controls, trying to turn the ship around as quickly as possible without stressing the engine.  "I need you to give us more lift, Sollux. We can't go around it, but maybe we can go over it. If we don't pass out first."  Sollux was lightning, at the aperture at an instant and flooding the lift sails with airflow as they shot into the sky. The ship creaked and screamed, protesting the rough treatment, and still the storm approached, faster than it had any right to be, faster than a storm that size  _ could _ move.  Roxy was eerily calm.

"Sollux, us turning around guarantees we won't have enough fuel to make the journey.  We were pushing it in the first place. We'll have to return to the Estate." Roxy said, voice level.  Sollux made a distressed sound over the squeal of the engine and sighed, weary.

"I know.  It was... nice.  While it lasted."

They didn't say anything more.  There was nothing left to say. Returning meant death or prison, and attempting to complete the journey with less than a full tank guaranteed a watery grave.  Not that it mattered. This storm was going to overtake them. Roxy could see it. Her instruments' readouts was clear - they didn't care about the dreams of two crazed fugitives, they cared for reality.  There was no way they could outrun this.

Roxy set the autopilot coordinates - there was no point in her guiding the ship now that she had completed their about-face.  There was nothing that she could do that the ship could not. She turned around in the chair with a sigh, taking in Sollux's frantic, hunched look as his hands flew along the dials, raising the ship steadily upward.  His hair was a wreck. Did he ever comb it? There was a new snag on his shirt in the perfect pattern of kitten claws, stained with blood from the torn flesh underneath. His chest heaved, his lips trembled. Roxy smiled sadly.

"Sollux."  It's all she had to say.  Sollux's hands stilled on the control panel, and he turned to look at her, glancing over her shoulder at the advancing storm.  Realization hit and he slumped, the fight gone from his eyes.   
  
Roxy stood, crossing the room and wrapping her arms around Sollux.  There were no tears from her - Sollux cried enough for them both as they sat on the floor of the cabin, watching the storm from the back window as it drew ever closer.  It shouldn't have been possible, but the realm of possibility meant nothing when it was happening before them. They held each other and Sollux wept and Roxy contemplated with a jolt of amusement that Sprocket would have been better off starving in the Estate.

The storm hit.  It was a sudden jolt, a loud wail of wind puncturing the tempered steel and carefully constructed seams of the Skaia.  It was as dramatic as the poets made it seem, awful and magnificent; the tempest on the wine-dark sea. Sollux was ripped from Roxy's arms by the tearing, greedy wind and only then did she cry, thrown from their creation into the spiraling cyclone that tore at her clothes and hair and stole the very breath from her lungs.  Hysteria rose in her and she laughed with no air, screaming at the sheer absurdity of it all - mankind tried to play god. They created machines to harness lightning and the very movement of the earth. They built airships to defy the very laws of physics themselves. They chose who was born and who lived and who died, but at the end of all things, it meant nothing when faced with the sheer authority of mother nature, reclaiming her sovereignty.   
  
Roxy plummeted.  How far, she couldn't tell - her eyes were dry from the wind and her body so broken from being tossed in the storm's grasp that she couldn't possibly see.  When her body hit the water, she could hear her bones crack before she felt the pain. The water was stinging cold, numbing the pain and her consciousness simultaneously as she sunk beneath the tossing waves.  What was up? What was down? There was no meaning, no direction. Only pain and empty lungs and eyes burning with salt.

And then hands on her, pulling her from the sea.  She broke the surface and coughed, head lolling on her shattered neck as she tried to see her savior.  Her body was too far gone. All she managed to catch before blissful oblivion stole her away was the sight of a burning pair of wings, drawing her into the sky.

 


End file.
